A-Hoy-Hoy fellow readers, I've been rather busy the past couple of weeks working on the same database day in and day out at work which has sucked all life out of me...but I'm back and better than ever! So what have I been up to in the past couple of weeks then?
Well the Lizardmen army is slowly beginning to grow into a huge force, after winning two metal Salamanders and four metal Terradons on eBay for the paltry sum of £10 I've got them fully stripped, broken down and reassembled ready for priming. One of the Terradons has a huge hole where the metal body and wing would not meet up so I'll be venturing into my first forays of green stuff, granted it's just to fill a hole but you've got to start somewhere right? The first unit of Skink skirmishes have been finished, bar finishing off the basing.
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| The Skinks Are Coming!!! |
So yeah they've got a pretty basic paint scheme going but they look pretty effective as a group, really need to get the camera set up rather than relying on the iPhone. I've started making a start on the Cold One Calvary I've got as well. I know they're not the grestest units for Lizardmen but they're already primed, and I love the idea of Lizardmen riding Cold Ones, first tester model came out okay after doing a basecoat of Death World Forest and then bringing the green colour up using multiple heavy washes of Athonian Camoshade.
Apart from that I've participated in my first tourne! The gaming club up in Blyth, NAG held their quarterly Fantasy tournament and this time around we used the Swedish Comp rules, which I've got to admit was a bugger to compile a list from for Ogres. Basically it's a 2400pts Army, then you have a score of 300, for each unit and size of unit there's a specific deduction eg -10 for Lore of Death on a Slaughtermaster, after all the subtractions you then divide the score by 10 and you've got your comp score. For some armies it's alot easier than others and for the Ogres almost everything is comped quite highly, meaning I was struggling to get between the 8-14 score that was required. After dropping the Lore of Death for Beasts I managed a 10 list which I took last Sunday. The list was as followed;
+ Lords + (388pts)
Slaughtermaster
Ironfists, Lore of Beasts, Wizard Level 4
Magic Items - Armour of Destiny, Staff of Sorcery, The Other Trickster's Shard
+ Heroes + (535pts)
Bruiser
Battle Standard Bearer, Heavy Armour
Magic Items and Big Names - Enchanted Shield, Talisman of Preservation
Bruiser
Great Weapon, Light Armour
Magic Items and Big Names - Armour of Silvered Steel,Ironcurse Icon
Butcher
Lore of the Great Maw, Wizard Level 2
Magic Items - Dispel Scroll, Ruby Ring of Ruin
+ Core + (698pts)
Gnoblars
Gnoblar Trappers, 40x Gnoblars
Ironguts
Bellower, 7x Ironguts
Standard Bearer - Standard of Discipline
Ogres
Bellower, Ironfists, 7x Ogres
Standard Bearer - Look-out Gnoblar (Look-out Gnoblar (AB-32))
+ Special + (587pts)
Leadbelchers
Bellower, 5x Leadbelchers
Mournfang Cavalry
Bellower, Heavy Armour, Ironfists, 4x Ogre
Standard Bearer - Dragonhide Banner
Sabretusk Pack
Sabretusk Pack
+ Rare + (170pts)
Ironblaster
So a pretty standard list which probably explains the 10 for the score for the list, however it was using things I already had so I didn't really have a chance to try something fluffy and less comped. So the games themselves... Won 1, Lost 1, Drew 1. Which for my first tournament/proper day of constant gaming I'm happy with.
GAME 1 - vs. Warriors of Chaos
In the first game I faced Martin(Sorry if I've got your name completely wrong!) and his Nurgle Warriors of Chaos. Along with the normal Warriors and a huge block of Marauders was two units of Skullcrushers, a Daemon Prince and two units of four trolls. Thankfully I got the first turn and used my Leadbelchers to take out one of the Trolls which in turn panicked the unit off the table. My Sabertusks did their usual run up the board to distract and one of them blocked off a full Troll and Dogs unit. Suprisingly the two units only managed a single wound and the Sabertusk ran away while the other Tusk stayed on the board the whole game being completely ignored and just running around aimlessly. The Mournfang showed their worth smashing through the other Troll and dog unit and overunning just two inches short of the Skullcrushers which meant next turn they were charged by both them and the Daemon Prince.
After the combat the Daemon Prince was left with two wounds and though the Mournfang lost and combat and were overran it meant both the DP and Skullcrushers were completely isolated in the corner of the table for the rest of the battle. The Ironguts and Ogres marched forward and chomped through the Warriors while the Gnoblar trappers stayed on the flank of the Ogres which meant the Marauders (who had been kept in the same place with the The Curse of Anraheir most of the game) couldn't side charge the Ogres. The Ironblaster did what he does best and fired through the ranks of the Warriors and the Leadbelchers were overan by the other unit of Skullcrushers again keeping them away from the rest of the battle.
As the time limit expired we totted up the totals and I had won by about 200 victory points giving me a 11-9 victory, however comp score difference was added to the total which ended up evening out the score and making it a 10-10 draw. Was a really enjoyable game and was my first experience of the Warriors of Chaos. The mark of Nurgle really screws around with combat with a -1 to hit all the time. I think, with it being my first game, I was definitely a bit more defensive than I should've been and it took a good few turns before combat occured which probably cost me dearly. I should've just done the traditional Ogre march and crush tactics rather than worry about being charged myself.
GAME 2 - vs. The Empire
Up next was a game against Jim and his Empire list. I was well and truly wiped off the table in this game with a 20-0 loss. Jim had a great list of Artillery (well they're Empire duh!) and the Lore of Metal which just tore shreds through my army. It started well with the Mourfang just ripping through his Demigryph Knights in the first turn. However with not really knowing the knowledge of the Lore of Metal spells I tried to dispel the wrong ones and it meant the more devastating spells tore apart of my units, buffed his and generally just outplayed the Ogres at every turn. So I thought I'd try and give him some artillery for good measure but I rolled a misfire first turn and it couldn't fire until Turn 3. His cannon took that opportunity to smash my Ironblaster to pieces before it could fire again, at least I thankfully took out the Helblaster before he could use it with the Flock of Doom.
After that it was fighting a lost cause, marching the two units up into his main forces I knew I would be outnumbered and soon experienced it with being charged in the flank, rear and front with horses, swords, halberds and everything else. Despite the Ogres putting up a valiant smash and stomp assault the numbers were too much and both units were over run. With only my Gnoblars and three Leadbelchers left on the table I conceded after being well and truly out tacticed and magiced (making up words now).
GAME 3 - vs. Daemons of Chaos
Finally was the game against fellow James' Tzeentch Lore-focused
Daemons of Chaos. This was the funniest game I've played in my short venture of
Warhammer Fantasy. Firstly the amount of casters that he had in the army was
ridiculous and basically gave him the full spell list from the Lore of Tzeentch
and Lore of Metal. Each channel attempt had him rolling 7-8 dice a time.
So basically James sat back on his edge allowing me to march
forwards, his Skull Cannon and my Ironblaster seemed to have a game of being
the most friendly artillery you could find and almost offered each other
to blow them up, unfortunately for me it was the Skull Cannon who finally found
it’s mark and wiped the Ironblaster out. The Mournfang continued their rampage,
which was a theme for the whole of the tournament and cleared out the harpies
on the left, ran into the Skullcrushers and then overran into the unit of Pink
Horrors behind them. The Ogres despite, being chaff blocked by flamers and
furies, finally got through and ran into a unit of Bloodletters and wiped the
full unit bar one. The Ironguts lined up their charge for the next turn and the
Leadbelchers even marched forward. As was the theme of the game as a laugh the
Gnoblars marched forced and charged a unit of Pink Horrors and being a 10-wide
horde managed to win the combat much to the amusement of both of us. I wasn’t
really expecting the Gnoblars to do much but they’ve definitely been a worthwhile
investment for just 125 points!
Then the most annoying/funniest thing happened three times
in row, despite James throwing 6 dice and most spells and not miscasting I
threw three dice on a spell, three turns in a row and miscast every single
time! Thankfully the Slaughtermaster and unit was decimated and despite rolling
either 5-6 every time with the S10 hits I only cause a couple of wounds on the
full unit and even wiped out one of his units that was in combat with! It’s got
to be one of the unluckiest but funniest things I’ve had happen and I think
James was frustrated that despite all of the miscasts I still had a full unit
of Ogres running towards his units at the back of the table.
After finishing turn 5 and the tide of the battle very much
in my favour James called it as a 20-0 to me, I don’t think it would’ve been
that dominant if we had totted up all the totals and point costs. Also taking
into consideration both his screamer units were on my side of the board but
away from the battle, I think I was lucky to have the 20-0 but it was
definitely a dominant display by the Ogres against the Daemons. The total
randomness that happens with the Daemonic Instability can sometimes be
laughable and also makes you feel a little sorry for the player.
After a full days gaming and three games I ended up
finishing 7th out of 16! Not too shabby for my first ever tournament
and was such a good experience against three very friendly players. I’m not
sure how but I also won Best Sportsmanship! Thanks to Jim, James and Craig for
all voting for me, it was great to play all three. At the end we were talking
about sorting out a tourney for Feb/March time and the talk is about possibly
doing 1500pts but the armies are already on the table and we get assigned a
random table/army meaning you cannot tailor the armies to yourself and you have
to learn how to play possibly an entire new army. Sounds really cool and I’ll
definitely be up for it! It was nice to hear from a few of the guys that they read the blog, least it's getting some readership!
So yeah, two weeks and it’s been bloody busy but great fun at
the same time! Now to focus on getting the Lizardmen painted up and hopefully
at some point this blasted weather will hold up enough to get some priming
done!
